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** Ted [=DiBiase=] Jr. basically ''is'' one to [[TedDiBiase his father.]] YourMileageMayVary on how well it works.
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** Ted [=DiBiase=] Jr. basically ''is'' one to [[TedDiBiase his father.]] YourMileageMayVary on how well it works.
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** Husky Harris was recently repackaged in FCW as Bray Wyatt, an expy of Danny Spivey's shortlived Waylon Mercy character from the mid-'90s which was itself an expy of Max Cady, Robert DeNiro's character from the movie CapeFear.
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** This was taken BeyondTheImpossible in the Rey Mysterio vs JBL match at Wrestlemania 25. Rey Rey won the match in a matter of seconds.
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** This was taken BeyondTheImpossible UpToEleven in the Rey Mysterio vs JBL match at Wrestlemania 25. Rey Rey won the match in a matter of seconds.
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* EvilForeigner: Played straight with Kamala, Vladimir Kozlov, William Regal, the Great Khali, practically every Canadian heel ever, and Finlay when he was heel. Averted by the likes of Kofi Kingston, Yoshi Tatsu and Finlay as a face, but played so straight with practically everyone of foreign extraction ever seen in WWF/E at some point in their careers, it's become one of Vinnie Mac's defining tropes - not that it's ever been confined to WWE, of course. Even applied to wrestlers who are not actually foreign or even of the same racial background as the character portrayed, providing they don't need to speak a lot - e.g. Jimmy Yang, a Korean-American, played Tajiri's {{Mook}} 'Akio' in a ''Japanese'' stable (some time before he subverted this trope by becoming 'Jimmy Wang Yang', a 'foreign'-looking chap who happens to act like he's a cowboy, which is therefore amusing), or Yokozuna, a quasi-'Japanese' Polynesian wrestler played by Rodney Anoai of the great Samoan wrestling dynasty. Many of this family have been presented as semi-savages when their ethnic background is recognized, from the Wild Samoans to Umaga. The Canadian BretHart got massive heel heat in America by proclaiming his home country's superiority, yet simultaneously retained a fanatically loyal Canadian fanbase that kept the Hitman face north of the border – which presumably made his opponents Evil Foreigners from a Canadian perspective. Years later, the various incarnations of La Resistance were always Evil Foreigners (whether billed as from France or Quebec, except for one delirious babyface night in Montreal), which led to the absurd commentary habit of referring to them as first "French sympathizers" and subsequently "Quebec sympathizers" – prompting some mystification amongst those who had missed the exact point at which the USA or indeed WWE had declared war on France and Quebec...
** The WWE had always been rather supportive of the armed forces (witness Tribute to the Troops). That might explain it.
** Subverted when WWE did the stupid "Kerwin White" gimmick with Chavo Guerrero, showing him pretending to want to be a stereotypical preppy white dude. Probably the one good thing about his Uncle Eddie's death is that this gimmick died with him. (It should be noted that both Eddie and Chavo were/are American.)
** As of 2010, WWE has toned down their usage of this trope - WWE now has a plethora of foreigners (such as [[WickedCultured Alberto]] [[AlbertoDelRio Del Rio]], [[GeniusBruiser Wade Barrett]], [[MilesGloriosus Sheamus]], [[ViolentGlaswegian Drew McIntyre]], [[TheNexus Justin Gabriel]]), and while many of them are heels, none of them are evil because they are foreign - each has a full-on heel gimmick to get heat.
** And as of 2012, an equal number of foreigners who are face. As with the heels, they're the good guys with their own characters rather than using their foreigner status as their sole defining feature.
** The WWE had always been rather supportive of the armed forces (witness Tribute to the Troops). That might explain it.
** Subverted when WWE did the stupid "Kerwin White" gimmick with Chavo Guerrero, showing him pretending to want to be a stereotypical preppy white dude. Probably the one good thing about his Uncle Eddie's death is that this gimmick died with him. (It should be noted that both Eddie and Chavo were/are American.)
** As of 2010, WWE has toned down their usage of this trope - WWE now has a plethora of foreigners (such as [[WickedCultured Alberto]] [[AlbertoDelRio Del Rio]], [[GeniusBruiser Wade Barrett]], [[MilesGloriosus Sheamus]], [[ViolentGlaswegian Drew McIntyre]], [[TheNexus Justin Gabriel]]), and while many of them are heels, none of them are evil because they are foreign - each has a full-on heel gimmick to get heat.
** And as of 2012, an equal number of foreigners who are face. As with the heels, they're the good guys with their own characters rather than using their foreigner status as their sole defining feature.
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* ForeignWrestlingHeel: Played straight with Kamala, Vladimir Kozlov, William Regal, the Great Khali, practically every Canadian heel ever, and Finlay when he was heel. Averted by the likes of Kofi Kingston, Yoshi Tatsu and Finlay as a face, but played so straight with practically everyone of foreign extraction ever seen in WWF/E at some point in their careers, it's become one of Vinnie Mac's defining tropes - not that it's ever been confined to WWE, of course. Even applied to wrestlers who are not actually foreign or even of the same racial background as the character portrayed, providing they don't need to speak a lot - e.g. Jimmy Yang, a Korean-American, played Tajiri's {{Mook}} 'Akio' in a ''Japanese'' stable (some time before he subverted this trope by becoming 'Jimmy Wang Yang', a 'foreign'-looking chap who happens to act like he's a cowboy, which is therefore amusing), or Yokozuna, a quasi-'Japanese' Polynesian wrestler played by Rodney Anoai of the great Samoan wrestling dynasty. Many of this family have been presented as semi-savages when their ethnic background is recognized, from the Wild Samoans to Umaga. The Canadian BretHart got massive heel heat in America by proclaiming his home country's superiority, yet simultaneously retained a fanatically loyal Canadian fanbase that kept the Hitman face north of the border – which presumably made his opponents Evil Foreigners from a Canadian perspective. Years later, the various incarnations of La Resistance were always Evil Foreigners (whether billed as from France or Quebec, except for one delirious babyface night in Montreal), which led to the absurd commentary habit of referring to them as first "French sympathizers" and subsequently "Quebec sympathizers" – prompting some mystification amongst those who had missed the exact point at which the USA or indeed WWE had declared war on France and Quebec...
** The WWE had always been rather supportive of the armed forces (witness Tribute to the Troops). That might explain it.
** Subverted when WWE did the stupid "Kerwin White" gimmick with Chavo Guerrero, showing him pretending to want to be a stereotypical preppy white dude. Probably the one good thing about his Uncle Eddie's death is that this gimmick died with him. (It should be noted that both Eddie and Chavo were/are American.)
** As of 2010, WWE has toned down their usage of this trope - WWE now has a plethora of foreigners (such as [[WickedCultured Alberto]] [[AlbertoDelRio Del Rio]], [[GeniusBruiser Wade Barrett]], [[MilesGloriosus Sheamus]], [[ViolentGlaswegian Drew McIntyre]], [[TheNexus Justin Gabriel]]), and while many of them are heels, none of them are evil because they are foreign - each has a full-on heel gimmick to get heat.
** And as of 2012, an equal number of foreigners who are face. As with the heels, they're the good guys with their own characters rather than using their foreigner status as their sole defining feature.
** The WWE had always been rather supportive of the armed forces (witness Tribute to the Troops). That might explain it.
** Subverted when WWE did the stupid "Kerwin White" gimmick with Chavo Guerrero, showing him pretending to want to be a stereotypical preppy white dude. Probably the one good thing about his Uncle Eddie's death is that this gimmick died with him. (It should be noted that both Eddie and Chavo were/are American.)
** As of 2010, WWE has toned down their usage of this trope - WWE now has a plethora of foreigners (such as [[WickedCultured Alberto]] [[AlbertoDelRio Del Rio]], [[GeniusBruiser Wade Barrett]], [[MilesGloriosus Sheamus]], [[ViolentGlaswegian Drew McIntyre]], [[TheNexus Justin Gabriel]]), and while many of them are heels, none of them are evil because they are foreign - each has a full-on heel gimmick to get heat.
** And as of 2012, an equal number of foreigners who are face. As with the heels, they're the good guys with their own characters rather than using their foreigner status as their sole defining feature.
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* PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny: Invoked by John Laurinaitis with "People Power".
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*** TrishStratus - Yes, believe it or not, she belongs on this list too. ''Seven time'' Women's Champion, who started out as a valet for T&A and eye candy for VinceMcMahon, and who was initially so bad in the ring that she could ''botch a catfight''. In fact, much like how WWE saw its tag team division moreso as a BreakupBreakout factory than anything else over time ever since ShawnMichaels went from one of the Rockers to one of the greatest of all time, WWE's insistence on turning models into wrestlers is largely due to this trope worked so well for Trish.
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*** TrishStratus - Yes, believe it or not, she belongs on this list too. ''Seven time'' Women's Champion, who started out as a valet for T&A and eye candy for VinceMcMahon, and who was initially so bad in the ring that she could ''botch a catfight''. In fact, much like how WWE saw its tag team division moreso as a BreakupBreakout factory than anything else over time ever since ShawnMichaels went from one of the Rockers to one of the greatest of all time, WWE's insistence on turning models into wrestlers is largely due to this trope worked working so well for Trish.
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*** TrishStratus - Yes, believe it or not, she belongs on this list too. ''Seven time'' Women's Champion, who started out as a valet for T&A and eye candy for VinceMcMahon, and who was initially so bad in the ring that she could ''botch a catfight''.
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*** TrishStratus - Yes, believe it or not, she belongs on this list too. ''Seven time'' Women's Champion, who started out as a valet for T&A and eye candy for VinceMcMahon, and who was initially so bad in the ring that she could ''botch a catfight''. In fact, much like how WWE saw its tag team division moreso as a BreakupBreakout factory than anything else over time ever since ShawnMichaels went from one of the Rockers to one of the greatest of all time, WWE's insistence on turning models into wrestlers is largely due to this trope worked so well for Trish.
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** The NXT rookies took this one pretty literally on the 6/7/10 Raw, when they took out ''everyone'' at ringside (down to the bell-ringer and medical personnel) and gave a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to JohnCena.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero. Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero. Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis
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** The [[TheNexus NXT rookies rookies]] took this one pretty literally on the 6/7/10 Raw, when they took out ''everyone'' at ringside (down to the bell-ringer and medical personnel) and gave a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to JohnCena.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero.Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitisWrestling/JohnLaurinaitis.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero.
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* UnrelatedBrothers: Long-time childhood friends {{Edge}} and {{Christian}}. Whose being kayfabe brothers in the past is no longer acknowledged.
** Kane and Undertaker.
** Kane and Undertaker.
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* UnrelatedBrothers: Long-time childhood friends {{Edge}} {{Wrestling/Edge}} and {{Christian}}.{{Wrestling/Christian}}. Whose being kayfabe brothers in the past is no longer acknowledged.
**Kane Wrestling/Kane and Undertaker.TheUndertaker.
**
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* ManipulativeEditing: Used in-universe for a John Laurinitis [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF21NLkonrw "People Power"]] video package for Over The Limit 2012 in the style of a business commercial. John Laurinitis, the heel authority figure who is routinely booed, is made to look like a well-loved politician as the praises of People Power are sung by the charts and voiceover.
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* WhamLine: [[WhamLine/ProWrestling it own page.]]
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* WhamLine: [[WhamLine/ProWrestling Has it own page.]]
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* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/{{WWE}} Let's just give it its own page]].
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* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/{{WWE}} [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/ProWrestling Let's just give it its own page]].
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* WhamEpisode: 4/11/11. Edge retiring. June 7th 2010, TheNexus wrecks havoc on Raw. And a bunch of other memorable moments.
* WhamLine: Too many to name really.
* WhamLine: Too many to name really.
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* WhamEpisode: 4/11/11. Edge retiring. June 7th 2010, TheNexus wrecks havoc on Raw. [[WhamEpisode/ProfessionalWrestling And a bunch of other memorable moments.
moments.]]
* WhamLine:Too many to name really.[[WhamLine/ProWrestling it own page.]]
* WhamLine:
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* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero.
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* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero. Wrestling/JohnLaurinaitis
* VinceMcMahon tried to invoke this with CMPunk after he left the company after winning at the Money in the Bank PPV, and taking the WWE Championship with him. Off course this only lasted one or two weeks, as he came back after they had held a tournament to crown a new winner.
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* WhamEpisode: 4/11/11. Edge retiring.
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* WhamEpisode: 4/11/11. Edge retiring. June 7th 2010, TheNexus wrecks havoc on Raw. And a bunch of other memorable moments.
* WhamLine: Too many to name really.
* WhamLine: Too many to name really.
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* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There is a reason we have [[WWERaw Raw]] and [[WWESmackdown Smackdown]], as well as [[AndZoidberg NXT.]] And if one where to check out their Alumni page on Wikipedia you see how many have been employed at one point or another.
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* AshFace: During his first six years in the WWE, the "Big Red Monster" {{Wrestler/Kane}} never appeared in public with any part of his body uncovered; the story was that he'd gotten caught in a fire started in his parents' funeral parlor and had barely survived, and his burns were too horrific for the sight of "normal" humans. In 2003, however, he was finally forced to remove his trademark red-and-black mask - and revealed, instead of grotesquely pitted features, a comically mild-looking AshFace. (It was made even funnier by the ''Raw'' commentators speculating on how ugly and deformed Kane would look.)
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* AshFace: During his first six years in the WWE, the "Big Red Monster" {{Wrestler/Kane}} {{Wrestling/Kane}} never appeared in public with any part of his body uncovered; the story was that he'd gotten caught in a fire started in his parents' funeral parlor and had barely survived, and his burns were too horrific for the sight of "normal" humans. In 2003, however, he was finally forced to remove his trademark red-and-black mask - and revealed, instead of grotesquely pitted features, a comically mild-looking AshFace. (It was made even funnier by the ''Raw'' commentators speculating on how ugly and deformed Kane would look.)
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* TheGiant: AndreTheGiant, [[KevinNash Kevin "Diesel" Nash]], TheBigShow and The Great Khali, and to a lesser extent, {{Wrestler/Kane}}, and TheUndertaker.
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* TheGiant: AndreTheGiant, [[KevinNash Kevin "Diesel" Nash]], TheBigShow and The Great Khali, and to a lesser extent, {{Wrestler/Kane}}, {{Wrestling/Kane}}, and TheUndertaker.
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*** Speaking of {{Wrestler/Kane}}, the real one previously played Fake Diesel when KevinNash left for WCW; earlier still, he was 'wrestling dentist' Isaac Yankem, before he was retooled (unacknowledged) under a mask into TheUndertaker's psychopathic half-brother.
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*** Speaking of {{Wrestler/Kane}}, {{Wrestling/Kane}}, the real one previously played Fake Diesel when KevinNash left for WCW; earlier still, he was 'wrestling dentist' Isaac Yankem, before he was retooled (unacknowledged) under a mask into TheUndertaker's psychopathic half-brother.
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*** It's this kind of incident that defines FanDumb, leading a tiny percentage of overzealous fans to ruin great ideas and angles for everyone else. Besides, [[CompletelyMissingThePoint the fan didn't even have a qualified WWF referee present]] to certify the win!
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** Anytime a tag team break up and one of the wrestlers does better than the other. The most prominent example is ShawnMichaels after the break up of The Rockers. Marty Janetty was the former tropenamer for this reason.
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* BreakupBreakout: The WWWF was the first major wrestling company to break ties with the [[NationalWrestlingAlliance NWA]] and declare its own world champion. Flash-forward to today and the WWE is a billion-dollar industry while the NWA barely exists.
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* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/{{WWE}} Let's just give it its own page]].
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** There was also The Headshrinkers and The Islanders (though Haku was a Tongan).
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** Most heels during the 80's and early 90's would count.
** UltimateWarrior made a career out of them.
** Hillbilly Jim (and his "kin"), full stop. Ditto the Godwins.
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* HoYay: A [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/WWE whole page worth barely scatches the surface]]
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* HoYay: A [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/WWE [[HoYay/{{WWE}} whole page worth barely scatches the surface]]
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* IHaveManyNames: Most of the wrestlers have had more than one name (or at least more than one gimmick) during their runs. The company itself has gone through this. From Capitol Wrestling Corporation to World Wide Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment to WWE, Inc.
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* TheBumblebee: Rey Mysterio and JohnCena, JeffHardy to a lesser extent.
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* KidAppealCharacter: Rey Mysterio and JohnCena, JeffHardy to a lesser extent.
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* LampshadeHanging: WWE.com posted this [[http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltu50vZYGb1r5ymzxo1_1280.jpg job opening]] for the RAW General Manager position when it was vacant in-universe in late 2011.
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Simple typo? \"YES! YES! YES!\"
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*** Though as of January 2011, Bryan's most definitely playing this straight.
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*** Though as of January 2011, 2012, Bryan's most definitely playing this straight.
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* GenreShift: NXT went from being a show of finding the next breakout star, full of challenges and the like, to become sort of a third brand in 2012 after they had abandoned the Challenges some months prior. It's being broadcasted on WWE.com, so not many are aware of this.
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** Hulk Hogan, Duke "The Dumpster" Drosse, The Big Bossman, Carlito Carribean Cool, Razor Ramon, JeffJarrett...
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** Hulk Hogan, HulkHogan, Duke "The Dumpster" Drosse, The Big Bossman, Carlito Carribean Cool, Razor Ramon, JeffJarrett...
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* AssKicksYou: Any wrestler who would use a butt-drop as a move, including Yokozuna, Earthquake, Doink the Clown, and Rikishi. Goldust would use a jumping butt attack (often called a butt-butt).
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* AssKicksYou: Any wrestler who would use a butt-drop as a move, including Yokozuna, Earthquake, Doink the Clown, and Rikishi. Goldust {{Goldust}} would use a jumping butt attack (often called a butt-butt).
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[[caption-width-right:320:There we go...]]
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[[caption-width-right:320:There we go...go.]]
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*** Though as of January 2011, Bryan's most definitely playing this straight.
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*** Rikishi did it for the Rock. He did it for the people.
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* Hoyay: A [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/WWE whole page worth barely scatches the surface]]
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* Hoyay: HoYay: A [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/WWE whole page worth barely scatches the surface]]
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WWF.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Uh, no, [[NamesTheSame it's not that]]. [[hottip:*:In fact, the World Wide Fund for Nature is the company responsible for WWE changing its name.]]]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wwe-logo_5064.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:There we go...]]
{{WWE}}, formerly short for World Wrestling Entertainment, is a [[InsistentTerminology "Global Entertainment"]] juggernaut specializing in [[ProfessionalWrestling wrestling]]. Formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation, World Wide Wrestling Federation, and Capital Wrestling Corporation.
The company was created in [[TheFifties 1952/1953]] by Roderick "Jess" [=McMahon=] (1882-1954) and Raymond "Toots" Mondt (1894-1976) to promote wrestling matches in the NewYorkCity area. Vincent J. [=McMahon=] (1914-1984) took over in 1954, following the death of his father. Vincent expanded the company to cover the entire northeastern United States from Washington DC to Pittsburgh to Maine. Run by [[VinceMcMahon Vincent K. [=McMahon=]]] (1945-), the then-WWF revolutionized the pro wrestling world in the [[TheEighties 1980s]], using a series of closed-circuit broadcast events, colorful characters, and clever cross-promotion with MTV to transform wrestling from a regionalized industry with a series of small players in a loose confederation into its own private Idaho, and transforming themselves into a multi-billion-dollar global entertainment conglomerate.
Currently has two brands: WWERaw and WWESmackdown.
%%
%% Yes, boys and girls that was all one sentence. Anyway. That's all we need. This isn't an encyclopedia.
%% We want to get to the tropes as quickly and as entertainingly as possible. Let Wikipedia do the history lesson.
%% -- Admin message.
----
!!'''Tropes associated with the WWE:'''
* AbortedArc: Happens not infrequently, owing to many storylines only being developed as they go along rather than pre-planned in their entirety; plus they are played out in a volatile live environment where participants can get injured mid-arc or otherwise fall from favour. Plots can be dropped abruptly due to an unfavourable initial response from higher-ups (like Vince [=McMahon=]), a change of writers, or unexpected audience reactions sending the wrestlers involved onto a different path or even through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor.
* ActionGirl: About half of the Divas qualify, among them BethPhoenix, Michelle [=McCool=], and, when given half a chance, Nikki and Brie Bella.
** FauxActionGirl: What the other half are, though the ratio is subject to change.
* AffablyEvil: MickFoley, especially in his early years.
* AllAmericanFace: HulkHogan, Sergeant Slaughter [before and after his feud with HulkHogan], TheUndertaker when he had his biker gimmick, JohnCena, to the extreme. Subverted with KurtAngle, [[JohnBradshawLayfield JBL]], and Jack Swagger.
** DGenerationX (ShawnMichaels and TripleH) dressed like American G.I.s and rode into arenas on a tank in the summer of 2009!
** Torrie Wilson dressed up as [[{{Eagleland}} Uncle Sam]] (top hat, striped coat, and bow tie) to promote the 2004 Great American Bash (although this was clearly FetishFuel more than anything else). JohnBradshawLayfield tried the same thing the following year - but it didn't go over as well.
** While it was normally subverted by KurtAngle, it was played very straight whenever he made a HeelFaceTurn.
** Sgt. Slaughter even [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome BARKED OUT THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE to a roaring crowd.]] [[invoked]]
* AlliterativeName: Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Mike "TheMiz" Mizanin, Kofi Kingston, Michelle [=McCool=], among others.
** Hulk Hogan, Duke "The Dumpster" Drosse, The Big Bossman, Carlito Carribean Cool, Razor Ramon, JeffJarrett...
* AmbiguouslyGay: Billy & Chuck, until October 2002 when Chuck proposed to Billy and it was revealed a week later to just be a publicity stunt, giving Billy a CMOF when the reveal came.
--> '''Billy:''' I'm not gay, and even if I was, I wouldn't marry Chuck.
* AndThatsTerrible: If the {{Heel}}s and the announcers didn't tell you who the heels were, most people wouldn't know who to boo.
* TheArtifact: Several finishers and hometowns no longer fit with their gimmicks. Most notable being TripleH, who started in the WWE as an upper-class blueblood, but since that is no longer his gimmick, his finisher (The Pedigree), his hometown (Greenwich, Connecticut), and even his ring name ("TripleH" refers to the initials of his original ring name, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley) don't fit. Though he really does live in Greenwich (but contrary to his original gimmick, wasn't born there).
** Even more glaring is TheUndertaker, who, in what is currently portrayed as an at-least-semi-realistic combat sports league, is ''[[AnthropomorphicPersonification Death himself]]''.
** Believe it or not, StoneColdSteveAustin was once a GorgeousGeorge type with blonde hair. The name of his finishing move - the "Stunner" - is an oblique reference to this.
** Ghanaian wrestler Kofi Kingston was initially billed as Jamaican, and his character's surname is the capital of Jamaica. It's now acknowledged that he's from Ghana, but the name has stuck.
* AshFace: During his first six years in the WWE, the "Big Red Monster" {{Wrestler/Kane}} never appeared in public with any part of his body uncovered; the story was that he'd gotten caught in a fire started in his parents' funeral parlor and had barely survived, and his burns were too horrific for the sight of "normal" humans. In 2003, however, he was finally forced to remove his trademark red-and-black mask - and revealed, instead of grotesquely pitted features, a comically mild-looking AshFace. (It was made even funnier by the ''Raw'' commentators speculating on how ugly and deformed Kane would look.)
* AssKicksYou: Any wrestler who would use a butt-drop as a move, including Yokozuna, Earthquake, Doink the Clown, and Rikishi. Goldust would use a jumping butt attack (often called a butt-butt).
* AssShove: The JR colonoscopy skits.
** "[[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] is going to take (some object, usually his boot but other times whistles, a camera, the Smoking Skull championship belt, Curtis Hughes, et al), shine it up nice and pretty, turn that sumbitch sideways and stick it straight up your candy ass!"
** Rikishi would use this to attack his oppenents after knocking them down in the ring turnbuckles, shoving his own ass in their faces in a move dubbed "The Stink Face."
* AttackOfThePoliticalAd: In 2004, MickFoley thought the big giant screens seen at political conventions resembled the Titantron, and since politics was, in his eyes, an imitation of the WWE, he figured maybe the WWE could imitate politics. This resulted in a pitch to VinceMcMahon for an angle where RandyOrton would do political attack ads against MickFoley. "MickFoley claims to be a hardcore legend, but is he really?" [=McMahon=] laughed and approved the idea for storyline in early 2004.
* AuthorAppeal: It's no secret Vince seems to think tall, very muscular men make the ideal wrestler, so it's no surprise those types are often the champion. Just ask HulkHogan, UltimateWarrior, {{Batista}}, BrockLesnar, and TripleH, to name a few.
* AuthorAvatar: The [=McMahon=] family (and to an extent, TripleH, who married into the family)
* BadBoss: VinceMcMahon. In fact it's the entire premise for his onscreen persona.
** Eric Bischoff, as ''RAW'' general manager, certainly fit this trope, as did PaulHeyman as both ''[=SmackDown=]'' general manager and ECW chairman. Longtime ''[=SmackDown=]'' general manager Teddy Long, however, is an inversion: He tolerates no disrespect or LoopholeAbuse by the heels. The [[TheVoice anonymous]] ''RAW'' general manager was a bit of a mixed bag, as was TripleH. The current ''RAW'' general manager, John Laurinaitis, also fits the trope.
* {{Badass}}: WWE's resident go-to {{Badass}} is Mark Callaway, better known as TheUndertaker (see his CrowningMomentOfAwesome entry). Come Hellfire or VinceMcMahon, this man lives for the fans, and he's respected for it.
* BadassBeard:
** TripleH, ShawnMichaels (Of the PermaStubble variety), TheUndertaker, RandySavage, [[AndZoidberg and]] Hillbilly Jim!
** {{Edge}}. Whenever he returns from injury, he does it sporting a full beard.
* BadassFamily: The Guerreros, the [=McMahons=], The Samoans, the Harts/Neidharts.
* BadassGrandpa: RicFlair, Undertaker, Batista (in RealLife, no less), occasionally Mr. [=McMahon=].
* BadassLongcoat: Undertaker, Edge
* BadassLonghair: It seems that every wrestler from the eighties and nineties had this, especially amongst the Kliq: TripleH, ShawnMichaels, BretHart, TheUndertaker, HulkHogan, KevinNash, ScottHall, and though the look might have seemed to be a passing vogue, most stuck with it. There are a number of newer wrestlers that have it too, like JohnMorrison.
* BaldOfAwesome: StoneColdSteveAustin, {{Goldberg}}.
* BadMoodAsAnExcuse: Used in excess by heel characters. Face characters aren't immune to this either. In general, it's dangerous to your well being to be around a wrestler when they're frustrated.
* BeardOfEvil: Played straight with the early '00s Triple H.
** Subverted with Justin Gabriel, post-Corre breakup in 2011; also subverted by Daniel Bryan.
* BigBad: VinceMcMahon, nearly constantly. In the year 2006, he took this UpToEleven by paying off a bewilderingly diverse CarnivalOfKillers (Shelton Benjamin, the Spirit Squad, Chris Masters, and Umaga just to name a ''few'') to either convert to [[ParodyReligion McMahonism]], rid WWE of DGenerationX, or both. In fact, practically every heel on RAW (and even some from Smack Down! and ECW) were either on the take or pressed into working for Mr. [=McMahon=].
* BilingualBonus: Sometimes people such as ReyMysterioJr or Maryse will cut part of a promo in their native language, or sometimes the whole thing.
** Inadvertently inverted by Maryse on the 09.27.2010 edition of RAW: she and Ted DiBiase Jr. received a piece of paper with "next week, you will be mine" written on it. Maryse read it in french first, saying: "la semaine dernière, tu étais à moi", which translates as "last week, you were mine", [[CaptainObvious which is not what was written]], and probably made many French-speaking fans weep.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Admittedly, pretty much every character in WWE has been a heel at some point during his or her career. Rey Mysterio is the only prominent figure who even comes close to being a true MarySue character.
* BoringInvincibleHero: HulkHogan for most of his career, TripleH and JohnCena at times.
** The UltimateWarrior was arguably the worst offender. How many times did you EVER see the UltimateWarrior put someone over clean?
*** Answer for most fans: zero times.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: It's extremely rare that they actually do this, rather than just LeaningOnTheFourthWall, but it finally happened (pretty much) in NXT season 3. During Goldust and Aksana's wedding, MichaelCole wondered aloud why Goldust was getting along with his brother after seemingly hating him previously, and Josh Matthews responded with "You know this is fake, right?" After a few seconds of mock-disbelief, they went right back into taking the ceremony pseudo-seriously. NXT in general has increasingly begun to break or lean on the fourth wall, whether it's through commentary or someone like DolphZiggler mockingly accusing a challenge of being rigged and Matt Striker simply answering with "Ya think?" The pros at their seats are also generally not in character and so it's not uncommon to see the various heels and faces chatting or otherwise doing something unrelated to the show.
** Before that at the first One Night Stand pay-per-view Paul Heyman gave a speech that started as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming as he thanked the loyal ECW fans then turned into a fourth wall destroying TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and general TakeThat to the WWE members that had "invaded" the show.
** During his shoot promo, CM Punk briefly made reference to the fourth wall, even going so far as to waving directly to the camera. Since then, his character has given him the freedom to escape the confines of the show's premise anytime he wants.
--> '''CM Punk:''' Woops, I'm breakin' the fourth wall!
* BreakTheCutie: Done very, very cruelly with Mickie James. There's a reason that more than one wrestling publication called that angle pretty much a humiliation for the industry.
* BrickJoke: During the 900th episode of Raw, Edge referred to {{Sheamus}} as Beaker. On the Halloween 2011 episode of Raw, Sheamus came face to face with Beaker. [[spoiler: Turns out they're cousins.]]
* TheBumblebee: Rey Mysterio and JohnCena, JeffHardy to a lesser extent.
* ButtMonkey: Santino Marella.
** Chavo Guerrero. Because there's nothing more humiliating than jobbing to Hornswoggle over and over and over again. [[spoiler: Or doing it while wearing an eagle costume.]]
*** When his uncle EddieGuerrero (who was like an older brother to him) died, and the company engaged in about a year of what fans derisively refer to as "Eddiesploitation", it was Rey Mysterio who got the big push as Eddie's successor. Despite the fact that Mysterio and Eddie had little connection beyond both being Hispanic and having feuded several times in the past.
**** It's been said that Chavo was offered the big push before Rey, but turned it down.
** Two words: [[MichaelCole Michael. Cole.]]
* CardCarryingVillain: Kaientai from the "Attitude Era". They were [[LargeHam EEEEEVVVIIILLLL!!!! INDEED!!!]]
** "Million Dollar Man" TedDiBiase made many ''{{Batman}}'' villains look subdued, for crying out loud. ("Everyone's got a price! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!")
* CatchPhrase: And how! Check out the [[{{Characters/WWE}} Character Page]] for examples.
* ChannelHop: ''Raw'' went from the USA Network to TNN/Spike TV (2000-2005), and back to USA.
** [=SmackDown!=] went from UPN to TheCW, then to MyNetworkTV, then to {{Syfy}}.
** ''Saturday Night's Main Event'' went from {{NBC}} to {{Fox}}, and was revived on NBC.
* CharacterDevelopment
* ChewToy: The SpanishAnnouncersTable, which seems to exist solely so wrestlers can take bumps through it.
* CoolMask: Kane (until he was unmasked), ReyMysterioJr., Mankind.
* CoolShades: Edge, JohnMorrison, BretHart.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Too many to count, but most obvious was [[CutLexLuthorACheck Vince]] and ShaneMcMahon.
* CurbStompBattle: Happens from time-to-time. Usually, between an incoming BigBad and a {{Jobber}}.
** Occasionally subverted too. Drew [=McIntyre=] made his debut like a standard jobber (starting in the ring with no entrance)... only to end up squashing the superstar he was facing and declaring himself the Chosen One.
** This was taken BeyondTheImpossible in the Rey Mysterio vs JBL match at Wrestlemania 25. Rey Rey won the match in a matter of seconds.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The Attitude Era, the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s where the product was loaded with ultra-violence and sex appeal.
* DarkIsNotEvil: TheUndertaker, if he's a face.
** 'Taker is currently rivaled in this department by RandyOrton. Despite being known as "The Viper" and hardly ''ever'' smiling, he gets enormous cheers from the fans. It must have been a DracoInLeatherPants transition.
*** A popular theory about Orton's popularity is that he reminds fans of StoneColdSteveAustin. He dresses in similar clothing (black boots and trunks), has a snake-like nickname (The Viper compared to Austin's Texas Rattlesnake), works a slow, deliberate "no-frills" style similar to Austin's and his finisher, the RKO bears a passing similarity to Austin's Stone Cold Stunner. Orton, coincidentally (or perhaps deliberately) has since shaved his head and begun using the Lou Thesz Press.
** StoneColdSteveAustin fits as well. He's a Type V Antihero (hero in name only) who dresses in dark colors, drinks beer, attacks people unprovoked (sometimes even Divas, civilians and the elderly) and is generally loathsome... He then turned that dial up to 11 and exacerbated this behavior as part of a FaceHeelTurn; despite the announcers screaming how reprehensible these actions were, and the other wrestlers condemning him, fans continued to cheer him simply because he was StoneColdSteveAustin. As a result, his turn never quite took and he was turned back relatively quickly.
* DayInTheLimelight: Everyone - and I mean ''everyone'' - gets one in WWE. Don't believe me? Just ask [[EnsembleDarkhorse Hornswoggle]].
* DeepSouth: Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Jesse and Festus, Jamie Noble.
** Also, [[JeffHardy Jeff]] and MattHardy to a certain extent.
** Florida-born Michelle [=McCool=] is sort of a [[AlphaBitch bitchy Southern belle]] as a heel.
* DesignatedVillain: [[invoked]] Some of the heels who get the most negative reactions from audiences are really more annoying or misguided than truly evil. Jillian Hall (whose only real crime is having an atrocious singing voice and not realizing it) is a perfect example. If such a heel is booked to be part of an important or semi-important storyline, the writers will usually have him or her quickly [[KickTheDog kick dogs]].
* DiscontinuityNod: In a 2007 promo on Raw, ShawnMichaels and TripleH took shots at the infamous Katie Vick angle.
-->'''ShawnMichaels:''' I don't know [[WhoWritesThisCrap who writes this garbage]], but this is the worst debacle since that whole Katie Vick thing years ago!
** CMPunk also took shots at Katie Vick in an episode of Raw.
--->'''CMPunk:''' Just look it up on Youtube, and it'll drive you to drink, and then you can come to me and I'll save you!
** Amidst the bizarrely entertaining hodgepodge of half-intentional comedy that is NXT season 3, there have been at least a few of these; for example, during the Goldust/Aksana wedding, MichaelCole said of the minister "Is that Al Wilson?" (See OutWithABang below.)
* DisproportionateRetribution: Very popular with heels, and often a starting point for a feud. Faces aren't exactly innocent of using this either.
* TheDragon: Shane O'Mac to his father Vince when both are heels. Alternatively ([[CoDragons or perhaps at the same time]]), Vince will use a top heel wrestler as this. The best example is [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] when he was the "Corporate Champion".
* DragonAscendant: [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] in the Nation of Domination and TripleH in DGenerationX.
* DumbMuscle: Often played straight, with a cocky heel accompanied by large, [[TheVoiceless silent]], not-especially-bright {{Mook}}s – but sometimes subverted: some very muscular wrestlers like Batista, Bobby Lashley or TripleH, although not being geniuses, aren't stupid either.
** One of TripleH's {{Red Baron}}s is even "The Cerebral Assassin".
* EnemyMine: Virtually a given in any Triple Threat Match. Is especially funny in the Royal Rumble Match, particularly in 2005 when Muhammad Hassan tried to participate. He didn't last too long.
** The build up to Team WWE vs. TheNexus at ''Summerslam 2010'' involved JohnCena and BretHart forging a fragile alliance with {{Edge}} and ChrisJericho. In a matter of weeks, Edge and Jericho would join the team, quit the team, and rejoin six days before the match. The only thing that kept the team together was mutual hate for Nexus, and it only lasted until Edge and Jericho's eliminations from the team.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: KellyKelly. There was more than a little LesYay evident when Candice Michelle enthusiastically accepted Kelly's invitation to join her in an ECW dance performance. Before that, TrishStratus.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: JohnMorrison and ShawnMichaels, notably.
* EvilForeigner: Played straight with Kamala, Vladimir Kozlov, William Regal, the Great Khali, practically every Canadian heel ever, and Finlay when he was heel. Averted by the likes of Kofi Kingston, Yoshi Tatsu and Finlay as a face, but played so straight with practically everyone of foreign extraction ever seen in WWF/E at some point in their careers, it's become one of Vinnie Mac's defining tropes - not that it's ever been confined to WWE, of course. Even applied to wrestlers who are not actually foreign or even of the same racial background as the character portrayed, providing they don't need to speak a lot - e.g. Jimmy Yang, a Korean-American, played Tajiri's {{Mook}} 'Akio' in a ''Japanese'' stable (some time before he subverted this trope by becoming 'Jimmy Wang Yang', a 'foreign'-looking chap who happens to act like he's a cowboy, which is therefore amusing), or Yokozuna, a quasi-'Japanese' Polynesian wrestler played by Rodney Anoai of the great Samoan wrestling dynasty. Many of this family have been presented as semi-savages when their ethnic background is recognized, from the Wild Samoans to Umaga. The Canadian BretHart got massive heel heat in America by proclaiming his home country's superiority, yet simultaneously retained a fanatically loyal Canadian fanbase that kept the Hitman face north of the border – which presumably made his opponents Evil Foreigners from a Canadian perspective. Years later, the various incarnations of La Resistance were always Evil Foreigners (whether billed as from France or Quebec, except for one delirious babyface night in Montreal), which led to the absurd commentary habit of referring to them as first "French sympathizers" and subsequently "Quebec sympathizers" – prompting some mystification amongst those who had missed the exact point at which the USA or indeed WWE had declared war on France and Quebec...
** The WWE had always been rather supportive of the armed forces (witness Tribute to the Troops). That might explain it.
** Subverted when WWE did the stupid "Kerwin White" gimmick with Chavo Guerrero, showing him pretending to want to be a stereotypical preppy white dude. Probably the one good thing about his Uncle Eddie's death is that this gimmick died with him. (It should be noted that both Eddie and Chavo were/are American.)
** As of 2010, WWE has toned down their usage of this trope - WWE now has a plethora of foreigners (such as [[WickedCultured Alberto]] [[AlbertoDelRio Del Rio]], [[GeniusBruiser Wade Barrett]], [[MilesGloriosus Sheamus]], [[ViolentGlaswegian Drew McIntyre]], [[TheNexus Justin Gabriel]]), and while many of them are heels, none of them are evil because they are foreign - each has a full-on heel gimmick to get heat.
** And as of 2012, an equal number of foreigners who are face. As with the heels, they're the good guys with their own characters rather than using their foreigner status as their sole defining feature.
* EvilIsPetty: Often used to gain heel heat, especially if said heel isn't getting the right kind of audience reaction. KurtAngle once tried every offense tactic in the book in one promo "and these people still cheer for him"!
* EvilLaugh: TedDiBiase Sr., full stop.
* {{Expy}}: Some of the next generation of wrestlers like RandyOrton and JohnMorrison seem a bit like they're a call back to previous superstars. Randy as mentioned above has crossed into Steve Austin territory while JohnMorrison wouldn't seem too far out of place alongside ShawnMichaels.
** Ted [=DiBiase=] Jr. basically ''is'' one to [[TedDiBiase his father.]] YourMileageMayVary on how well it works.
* FaceHeelTurn: A standard procedure. Often used to start a new storyline or to advance an old one.
* FascinatingEyebrow: [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]]'s The People's / Corporate Eyebrow
* FatBastard: King Kong Bundy, Earthquake, Yokozuna, Bastion Booger, Rikishi, Big Daddy V to name a few.
** Subverted by Haystacks Calhoun, who was grotesquely fat but [[BigFun hailed as a hero by the fans]]. Also subverted during Rikishi's face periods.
* FiveMovesOfDoom: TropeNamer is BretHart, though the TropeCodifier is JohnCena and an Ur-Example is HulkHogan.
* FridayNightDeathSlot: Averted, when {{UPN}} moved [=SmackDown!=] to Friday nights, and again, when it [[ChannelHop switched to]] MyNetworkTV, the WWE aggressively promoted the show, and it more or less retained their audience.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Gangrel. (He never really got the stardom to be a face or a heel.) Kevin Thorn would later adopt the vampire gimmick.
* FunWithAcronyms: Let's see: '''I'''rwin '''R'''. '''S'''hyster, the wrestling taxman...'''H'''enry '''O'''. '''G'''odwin and '''P'''hineas '''I'''. '''G'''odwin, wrestling swine-farmers, '''M'''ontel '''V'''ontavious '''P'''orter, the CaptainErsatz for Terrell Owens, Rosey the '''S'''uper '''H'''ero '''I'''n '''T'''raining.
* GeodesicCast: The Brand Extension to [[WWERaw Raw]] and [[WWESmackdown Smackdown]] (and briefly {{ECW}}).
* TheGiant: AndreTheGiant, [[KevinNash Kevin "Diesel" Nash]], TheBigShow and The Great Khali, and to a lesser extent, {{Wrestler/Kane}}, and TheUndertaker.
* GimmickMatches
* {{Hammerspace}}: Under the ring is pretty much this. In addition to the fact that pretty much anything can be found underneath it, Hornswoggle ''lives'' under it in {{kayfabe}}. And DX once had to go under it as part of a storyline where Hornswoggle sued them, discovering an ''entire building'' under the ring populated by people of Hornswoggles size. This was previously mentioned by JBL, but no one believed him...
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor
** Rosa Mendes seems more fit to be heel than face, but she can't even keep to any alignment beyond a few weeks anymore.
* HeelFaceTurn: This is pretty common among the main-eventers, as fans start to want to cheer for a fascinating heel but don't want to feel "dirty" doing it.
* HijackedByGanon: [[spoiler:VinceMcMahon]] as the Higher Power in 1999. TripleH hijacking Test's kayfabe wedding to StephanieMcMahon (and push) in the same year.
** StoneColdSteveAustin getting run over by a car driven by Rikishi: TripleH was revealed as the mastermind out of nowhere a few months into the feud.
* Hoyay: A [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/WWE whole page worth barely scatches the surface]]
* IAteWhat: Al Snow's "Pepper steak".
* IdiotBall: The most frequently-occurring case is when a wrestler completely switches focus from the opponent they have lying on the mat to yell at someone (either the ref, or whomever came to the aid of their opponent) in the opposite direction or outside the ring. 9 times out of 10, this results in them turning and walking straight into the opponent's finisher; the remaining 1 is a successful roll-up.
* InformedAbility: NXT rookie Michael Tarver hasn't knocked anyone out in '1.9 seconds' on screen yet.
** Now subverted with the NXT riot. His first victim? ''JohnCena.''
* InsistentTerminology: Professional wrestling soon gave way to "Sports Entertainment" and, as of 2010, "''Live'' Entertainment."
** As [[WorkedShoot mentioned]] by JoeyStyles, WWE's insistence upon calling the wrestlers "Superstars" (Which, to be fair, they have done since the 80s.)
** Taken to the next level when TVWeek wrote a press release about Drew Carey being inducted into the "Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame" and the {{WWE}} '''demanded''' the headline be changed because it included the words "Pro Wrestling". Read more about it [[http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/2011/03/whoaa-nellie-when-brands-go-horribly-wrong-pstvince-mcmahon-and-the-wwe-are-no-longer-in-the-wrestli.php here]].
*** Although to be fair, the WWE Hall of Fame does not represent the industry as whole so there were likely more reasons beyond simply the terminology.
* {{Jobber}}: In the 1990s, it was Barry Horowitz. Also, Al Snow and the "J.O.B. Squad". Steve Lombardi, the Brooklyn Brawler, was the traditional "virgin-slayer" in the 80s and 90s, just about everyone who wasn't jobbing got their first win over him. In 2008 Colin Delaney lost so often, losing actually became his gimmick.
* KidsPreferBoxes: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AxogCo4dV4 This Christmas promo]] for [=WWEshop=].com and the Elimination Chamber playset. CMOF for Shawn Michaels.
* LameComeback: Very often, a face and a heel will converse and the face will mock and insult the heel. And virtually every single time, the heel will either respond with spluttering outrage or by saying some variation of "You think you're pretty funny, huh?"
* LaxativePrank: EddieGuerrero did this to The Big Show using a bagful of spiked burritos.
* LeParkour: JohnMorrison practices this both in-ring and outside.
* LighterAndSofter: Since WWE's free shows became rated TV-PG, starting in 2009. The pay-per-views were rated TV-14, until the ''Hell in a Cell'' PPV, which was rated TV-PG.
** The addition of little-person wrestler Hornswoggle and his inclusion in many storylines seemed to come at the very beginning of this new phase of the WWE's existence. Needless to say many fans [[RuinedForever don't seem to like]] the overly cartoony matches he's involved in very much.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Many, many instances. TripleH, especially, ''loves'' this one.
** During most of the backstage segments that aren't direct promos or interviews, most superstars don't acknowledge that there is a camera crew right there in the room with them. They'll sometimes openly discuss secret plans as if they were the only ones in the room and the people who's backs they're sneaking behind couldn't just watch the show later on DVR. Kane is a notable exception; towards the end of most backstage skits he's in, he'll give an evil stare directly into the camera.
** NXT season 3. The show was due to be "cancelled" mid-season in order to bring Smackdown to the SyFy network, and WWE apparently took this as an opportunity to launch into full-blown self-referential insanity, especially at the commentary table. MichaelCole constantly derided the show as being terrible and "quit" at one point. He was briefly replaced by CMPunk, which resulted in an episode where the commentary (aside from seeing a substantial increase in quality) reached a nearly MST3K level of mocking, and it stayed right around that level ever since. In addition to just trashing the show in general, the commentary frequently danced around kayfabe.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: MickFoley's four wrestling personas - Cactus Jack, Dude Love, Mankind and [[AsHimself himself]] - are all completely separate characters.
** Note: Unlike [[PunnyName Isaac Yankem DDS]] and Kane, say, who were played by the same person but are totally separated characters, it is openly acknowledged that Foley is one guy in 4 roles. It was even {{lampshaded}} when he once entered a Royal Rumble match three times (he wasn't working under his own name at the time), once for each persona.
* LoserLeavesTown: The Career Threatening Match forces a wrestler to leave the company if he loses said match. Comes in numerous variants, including the ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 'Loser Gets Fired' match.
* LoudGulp: VinceMcMahon has turned this into an art.
* MacGuffinMelee: For a while the Hardcore Title was defended on the "24/7 rule." Anybody could challenge for the belt at any time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no matter what the champ was doing, as long as they had a WWF ref to call the match. Frequently the new champ would then be attacked by one of his friends, who would win the belt only to be challenged in turn, and so on.
** The 24/7 thing came to an end when Crash Holly was at a bar and a random wrestling fan tried to pin him and win the Hardcore Title. WWE quickly dropped the idea after that incident.
* ManipulativeBastard: Edge and TripleH, and sometimes Mr. [=McMahon=].
* MeleeATrois: Triple Threat Matches and Fatal ''x''-Ways, usually. Upped to "always" when a title's on the line.
* MisplacedAccent: Kofi Kingston is from Ghana (West Africa) but was initially billed as 'Jamaican' and used an accent approximately more like he's from Jamaica.
* {{Mook}}: If VinceMcMahon is a [[BigBad heel]], pretty much every heel can be considered this, since he can summon them whenever he wants. To a lesser extent, a lower-level heel authority figure or even main heel wrestlers can use lower card heels this way, especially if they have a PowerStable that's larger than a FiveBadBand.
* NamedByDemocracy:The fans were asked to name every program on the WWE Network. Also how Air Boom got their name.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: Yes, we DO know that it's fake, thank you. You can stop informing us.
** One fan at Wrestlemania XXVI held a sign that stated, "It's still real to me, dammit!"
** Yes, we heard that TripleH monopolizes creative control. So did HulkHogan, RicFlair, KurtAngle . . . ShawnMichaels, Dusty Rhodes, [[{{TNA}} Jeff Jarrett]], uh everybody who's ever had creative control has done that.
* NeverMyFault: Commonplace. A heel can ''never'' accept they lost a match legitimately, they will accuse their opponent of using illegitimate tactics or manipulating a weakness. Can often lead into another feud arc if they blame their loss on an ally involved (and usually try beat that point into them).
* NinetiesAntiHero: StoneColdSteveAustin pretty much codified the trope for ProfessionalWrestling, let alone WWE. He was followed by [[FanNickname Bikertaker]], The Rock (as a face) and TripleH's non-DX face character.
* [[NotUsingTheZWord Not Using the W Word]]: WWE is notorious for frequent attempts to distance itself from the concept of ''wrestling''; instances include (but are not limited to) billing itself as "Sports Entertainment" rather than 'professional wrestling', press releases to magazines playing the trope straight, exclusively referring to wrestlers as "Superstars" rather than 'wrestlers', referring to Fans as "the WWE Universe"; and, most lately, discarding its own ''name'' (World Wrestling Entertainment) – 'WWE' is now officially not an acronym, the company is purely named as WWE.
** Zigzagged now; the word "wrestler" is part of WWE Champ CMPunk's InsistentTerminology, and WWE has relented somewhat on the policy, reportedly due to falling ratings.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: {{Sheamus}}' justification for helping JohnCena in an episode of Raw.
* OutWithABang: Al Wilson, in what's probably an angle most people have repressed.
* OverlyLongGag: Admit it - the fans shouting out "WHAT!?" grates on the nerves, seeing as Stone Cold (who started it up) has long been largely out of the picture, and it was only 'relevant' during his brief heel run a ''decade'' ago.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: ReyMysterioJr may be short, but he's also noticeably quicker than the vast majority of the guys he wrestles against. He's held his own against more than his share of big guys.
* PlayingWithFire: Kane; the Inferno Match; occasionally the wrestlers' pyros.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Inverted by Muhammad Hassan. Thuggin' and Buggin' Enterprises was a straight example. Kerwin White was the most extreme.
* PokeThePoodle: One storyline had Tyson Kidd feuding with Yoshi Tatsu. Tyson's claim to villain/big heel act to get Yoshi angry? He broke Yoshi's action figure.
* PowerStable: Some examples:
** The Heenan Family (80s-'92)
** The New Hart Foundation (1997)
** DGenerationX (1997-2000)
** MinistryOfDarkness (1998-1999)
** TheCorporation (1998-1999)
** Evolution (2003-2005)
** The Cabinet (2004-2005)
** La Familia (2007-2008)
** Legacy (2008-2010)
** TheNexus (2010-2011)
** [[TheNexus The Corre]] (2011)
* ReligionOfEvil: Undertaker and the entire MinistryOfDarkness during the AttitudeEra. Also an inadvertent CosmopolitanCouncil.
** VinceMcMahon would briefly create [=McMahonism=], mostly as retaliation for ShawnMichaels' newfound born-again status.
** The cult of "straight edge" is appearing to look this way thanks to CMPunk and his "Straight Edge Society."
* RingOldies: Finlay is 49 years old. Undertaker and ShawnMichaels are 45 years old. TripleH is 41 years old. HulkHogan is 58. However, special mention goes to RicFlair who (after "retiring" at 59) wrestles past the age of 61.
** None of them can hold a candle to The Fabulous Moolah, who won a match on her 80th birthday.
** Or Mae Young who took a table bump (to clarify for non-fans, that means getting smashed through a table) from the Dudleys in her 80s... and who claims to have a standing invitation to wrestle VinceMcMahon's (currently preschooler) granddaughter, Aurora Levesque, on Mae's 100th birthday.
*** Mae Young will turn 100 in the year 2023, at which point young Aurora will be sixteen plus change. So... plausible?
* StillTheLeader: Faarooq, after The Rock took over leadership of the Nation.
* SuplexFinisher: Somewhat surprisingly, very few wrestlers use a suplex as an actual finishing move. The most notable examples are probably [[CurtHennig Mr. Perfect]]'s Perfectplex and the T-Bone Suplex of Shelton Benjamin. There's also, to some extent, Goldust's Final Cut, {{Goldberg}}'s Jackhammer and Al Snow's Snowplow brainbuster. Notable examples where a variety is used as the direct set-up for a finisher include EddieGuerrero's Three Amigos twisting snap suplexes (for the Frog Splash), and the trifecta of German suplexes often used by ChrisBenoit (for the Diving Headbutt) and KurtAngle.
* TakeThat: During the Monday Night Wars, and against those who left the WWE on bad terms.
** The MoralGuardians, the Right To Censor, is a TakeThat towards the Parents' Television Council.
* TearsOfJoy: Whenever someone wins their first championship.
* ThirdPersonPerson: The Rock says that The Rock hasn't been mentioned yet!
* TookALevelInBadass: Quite a few examples...
** JeffHardy, full stop. When he and his brother Matt debuted in the company in the late 1990s, they [[{{Jobber}} lost every single one of their matches for a while]]. Ten years later, Jeff [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome won the WWE Championship]].
** TheMiz transformed over time from a clownish DirtyCoward to a legitimately threatening heel. When he became ''WWE Champion'' in November 2010, it's a bit surprising that [[PuffOfLogic the entire universe didn't explode as a result]].
** Many of the Divas make this list:
*** Stacy Keibler - After more than three years of mostly being used as eye candy, Stacy finally got a push of sorts in October of 2004 when she pinned Molly Holly to become Number One Contender to TrishStratus's Women's Championship. Although she didn't win her one-on-one with Stratus, Keibler got a second opportunity soon afterward when she entered a seven-woman Battle Royal at ''Taboo Tuesday'' and made it two-thirds of the way through before getting eliminated by Holly.
*** Candice Michelle - She will go down in history as the first Diva Search contestant (2004) to win the Women's Championship. She accomplished this in June 2007, when she pinned then-champion Melina Perez at the first-ever ''Night Of Champions''. She held the title for nearly four months, finally losing it to BethPhoenix.
*** Maria Kanellis - Another 2004 Diva Search contestant, she started out as a "dim-witted" backstage interviewer for comic relief on ''Monday Night Raw''. She made occasional forays into the ring over the next few years, finally becoming more or less a full-time wrestler in 2008. That's when she became the first Diva to pin BethPhoenix since Phoenix had won the Women's Championship (though the match was non-title, and Kanellis needed some help from Candice Michelle to score the win). Kanellis and Phoenix met again at ''[=WrestleMania=] XXIV'' in a tag-team match that also included Ashley Massaro and Melina Perez, and Kanellis almost certainly would have pinned Phoenix clean if it hadn't been for interference by Santino Marella.
*** KellyKelly - She joined the relaunched ''ECW on [=SciFi=]'' in June of 2006 as an exotic dancer [[InsistentTerminology ("exhibitionist," to use her term)]] with practically no wrestling skills. After just over a year of training, she began to appear in the ring sporadically and then full-time after being drafted to ''Monday Night Raw'' in 2008. She appeared in back-to-back (2008 and 2009) Divas' Elimination Matches at ''Survivor Series'', eliminating two Divas between them. Finally, she won the Divas' Championship from Brie Bella on June 20, 2011, after being voted Number One Contender by the fans.
*** TrishStratus - Yes, believe it or not, she belongs on this list too. ''Seven time'' Women's Champion, who started out as a valet for T&A and eye candy for VinceMcMahon, and who was initially so bad in the ring that she could ''botch a catfight''.
** JohnCena went from a comic-relief white-boy rapper to possibly the biggest face in the federation. Key moments in the transition included marking his return from injury by [[GiantKilling lifting Rikishi above his head]], and slapping Vince in the face.
* TooManyHalves: Montel Vontavius Porter: "I am half-man, half-amazing, half-tag-team-champion... I'm so great, I'm the only man on Earth with three halves!"
* TooSoon: The Muhammad Hassan angle on [=SmackDown=], Who Killed Mr. [=McMahon=]?
** Although the latter is more of a "too early", [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Benoit_double_murder_and_suicide considering the circumstances]].
*** Both were. The Hassan angle was filmed before the July 7th bombings, it was only aired after them.
* [[TrashTheSet Trash The [=TitanTron=]]]: Happens each time when the WWE upgrades its [=TitanTron=]. For example, on an episode of Raw in 2007, TripleH throws his sledgehammer at the [=TitanTron=] to make way for the current [=TitanTron=] HD set used on Raw, [=SmackDown=], ECW, and Superstars.
** The NXT rookies took this one pretty literally on the 6/7/10 Raw, when they took out ''everyone'' at ringside (down to the bell-ringer and medical personnel) and gave a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to JohnCena.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero.
** Really, most times Vince asserts his authority.
* UnrelatedBrothers: Long-time childhood friends {{Edge}} and {{Christian}}. Whose being kayfabe brothers in the past is no longer acknowledged.
** Kane and Undertaker.
* {{Unperson}}: ChrisBenoit, though he is still mentioned in WWE's official title histories, match results, etc., as well as 2009's WWE Encyclopedia.
** The encyclopedia doesn't even mention that he's dead!
* [[Franks2000InchTV Vince's 2000-inch Titantron]]
* WhamEpisode: 4/11/11. Edge retiring.
* WildSamoan: The Wild Samoans, Umaga, Haku, Jimmy Snuka, and Rikishi Fatu. Averted by Yokozuna (who was Samoan but played a Japanese-style sumo wrestler), Manu, Rosey, the Uso brothers and Tamina. Oh, and [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]].
* WorldsStrongestMan: Nickname used by several wrestlers including MarkHenry, Ted Arcidi, Ken Patera, and Dino Bravo.
* WrestlingDoesntPay: Especially {{egregious}} in the late '80s and early '90s. Still applies to an extent nowadays depending on promotion and position; so much so that there was an article discussing how embarassing that TNA's woman's champion... was making so little, she had to work in a Sunglasses Hut (a mall kiosk).
* YesMan: The general attitude of VinceMcMahon to some people is that he refuses to take "no" for an answer. Pretty much a job description for anybody on the writing team not related to the [=McMahons=], according to virtually everyone.
* YouLookFamiliar: Occasionally a wrestler will disappear and return with a new name and gimmick so radically different, many fans won't recognize him. Jamal to Umaga for example.
** Sometimes the WWE marketing actually helps this along, pretending that an earlier character played by a current athlete-actor never existed. R-Truth (a.k.a. RonKillings) is actually K-Kwik from back in the day; he even won a title as K-Kwik, but WWE has apparently HandWaved that out of existence.
*** Similarly, when DolphZiggler won the WWE Intercontinental Championship in 2010, the announcers claimed that it was his first title, conveniently forgetting that the same wrestler was part of the Spirit Squad which won the World Tag Team Championship in 2006.
*** Festus is probably one of the best examples. He's now one of CMPunk's underlings.
*** Festus is actually a subversion: he's acknowledged to be the same person, but the story is that he's been "saved" by [[SmugStraightEdge CM]] [[MessianicArchetype Punk]] and his teachings.
*** He was also the fake Kane. So he's subverted it and played it straight.
*** Speaking of {{Wrestler/Kane}}, the real one previously played Fake Diesel when KevinNash left for WCW; earlier still, he was 'wrestling dentist' Isaac Yankem, before he was retooled (unacknowledged) under a mask into TheUndertaker's psychopathic half-brother.
*** Charles Wright, who played Papa Shango, Kama the Supreme Fighting Machine, and The Godfather. While Kama sort of evolved into The Godfather, they never once acknowledged that he was ever Papa Shango. It sort of helps that Shango wore face paint all the time, and that the time between Wright's stints as Shango and Kama was a fairly long interval.
*** Tyler Reks was a short lived surfer dude who then showed up as Tyler Reks, dreadlocked demolition man.
-----
[[caption-width-right:350:Uh, no, [[NamesTheSame it's not that]]. [[hottip:*:In fact, the World Wide Fund for Nature is the company responsible for WWE changing its name.]]]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wwe-logo_5064.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:There we go...]]
{{WWE}}, formerly short for World Wrestling Entertainment, is a [[InsistentTerminology "Global Entertainment"]] juggernaut specializing in [[ProfessionalWrestling wrestling]]. Formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation, World Wide Wrestling Federation, and Capital Wrestling Corporation.
The company was created in [[TheFifties 1952/1953]] by Roderick "Jess" [=McMahon=] (1882-1954) and Raymond "Toots" Mondt (1894-1976) to promote wrestling matches in the NewYorkCity area. Vincent J. [=McMahon=] (1914-1984) took over in 1954, following the death of his father. Vincent expanded the company to cover the entire northeastern United States from Washington DC to Pittsburgh to Maine. Run by [[VinceMcMahon Vincent K. [=McMahon=]]] (1945-), the then-WWF revolutionized the pro wrestling world in the [[TheEighties 1980s]], using a series of closed-circuit broadcast events, colorful characters, and clever cross-promotion with MTV to transform wrestling from a regionalized industry with a series of small players in a loose confederation into its own private Idaho, and transforming themselves into a multi-billion-dollar global entertainment conglomerate.
Currently has two brands: WWERaw and WWESmackdown.
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%% Yes, boys and girls that was all one sentence. Anyway. That's all we need. This isn't an encyclopedia.
%% We want to get to the tropes as quickly and as entertainingly as possible. Let Wikipedia do the history lesson.
%% -- Admin message.
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!!'''Tropes associated with the WWE:'''
* AbortedArc: Happens not infrequently, owing to many storylines only being developed as they go along rather than pre-planned in their entirety; plus they are played out in a volatile live environment where participants can get injured mid-arc or otherwise fall from favour. Plots can be dropped abruptly due to an unfavourable initial response from higher-ups (like Vince [=McMahon=]), a change of writers, or unexpected audience reactions sending the wrestlers involved onto a different path or even through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor.
* ActionGirl: About half of the Divas qualify, among them BethPhoenix, Michelle [=McCool=], and, when given half a chance, Nikki and Brie Bella.
** FauxActionGirl: What the other half are, though the ratio is subject to change.
* AffablyEvil: MickFoley, especially in his early years.
* AllAmericanFace: HulkHogan, Sergeant Slaughter [before and after his feud with HulkHogan], TheUndertaker when he had his biker gimmick, JohnCena, to the extreme. Subverted with KurtAngle, [[JohnBradshawLayfield JBL]], and Jack Swagger.
** DGenerationX (ShawnMichaels and TripleH) dressed like American G.I.s and rode into arenas on a tank in the summer of 2009!
** Torrie Wilson dressed up as [[{{Eagleland}} Uncle Sam]] (top hat, striped coat, and bow tie) to promote the 2004 Great American Bash (although this was clearly FetishFuel more than anything else). JohnBradshawLayfield tried the same thing the following year - but it didn't go over as well.
** While it was normally subverted by KurtAngle, it was played very straight whenever he made a HeelFaceTurn.
** Sgt. Slaughter even [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome BARKED OUT THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE to a roaring crowd.]] [[invoked]]
* AlliterativeName: Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Mike "TheMiz" Mizanin, Kofi Kingston, Michelle [=McCool=], among others.
** Hulk Hogan, Duke "The Dumpster" Drosse, The Big Bossman, Carlito Carribean Cool, Razor Ramon, JeffJarrett...
* AmbiguouslyGay: Billy & Chuck, until October 2002 when Chuck proposed to Billy and it was revealed a week later to just be a publicity stunt, giving Billy a CMOF when the reveal came.
--> '''Billy:''' I'm not gay, and even if I was, I wouldn't marry Chuck.
* AndThatsTerrible: If the {{Heel}}s and the announcers didn't tell you who the heels were, most people wouldn't know who to boo.
* TheArtifact: Several finishers and hometowns no longer fit with their gimmicks. Most notable being TripleH, who started in the WWE as an upper-class blueblood, but since that is no longer his gimmick, his finisher (The Pedigree), his hometown (Greenwich, Connecticut), and even his ring name ("TripleH" refers to the initials of his original ring name, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley) don't fit. Though he really does live in Greenwich (but contrary to his original gimmick, wasn't born there).
** Even more glaring is TheUndertaker, who, in what is currently portrayed as an at-least-semi-realistic combat sports league, is ''[[AnthropomorphicPersonification Death himself]]''.
** Believe it or not, StoneColdSteveAustin was once a GorgeousGeorge type with blonde hair. The name of his finishing move - the "Stunner" - is an oblique reference to this.
** Ghanaian wrestler Kofi Kingston was initially billed as Jamaican, and his character's surname is the capital of Jamaica. It's now acknowledged that he's from Ghana, but the name has stuck.
* AshFace: During his first six years in the WWE, the "Big Red Monster" {{Wrestler/Kane}} never appeared in public with any part of his body uncovered; the story was that he'd gotten caught in a fire started in his parents' funeral parlor and had barely survived, and his burns were too horrific for the sight of "normal" humans. In 2003, however, he was finally forced to remove his trademark red-and-black mask - and revealed, instead of grotesquely pitted features, a comically mild-looking AshFace. (It was made even funnier by the ''Raw'' commentators speculating on how ugly and deformed Kane would look.)
* AssKicksYou: Any wrestler who would use a butt-drop as a move, including Yokozuna, Earthquake, Doink the Clown, and Rikishi. Goldust would use a jumping butt attack (often called a butt-butt).
* AssShove: The JR colonoscopy skits.
** "[[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] is going to take (some object, usually his boot but other times whistles, a camera, the Smoking Skull championship belt, Curtis Hughes, et al), shine it up nice and pretty, turn that sumbitch sideways and stick it straight up your candy ass!"
** Rikishi would use this to attack his oppenents after knocking them down in the ring turnbuckles, shoving his own ass in their faces in a move dubbed "The Stink Face."
* AttackOfThePoliticalAd: In 2004, MickFoley thought the big giant screens seen at political conventions resembled the Titantron, and since politics was, in his eyes, an imitation of the WWE, he figured maybe the WWE could imitate politics. This resulted in a pitch to VinceMcMahon for an angle where RandyOrton would do political attack ads against MickFoley. "MickFoley claims to be a hardcore legend, but is he really?" [=McMahon=] laughed and approved the idea for storyline in early 2004.
* AuthorAppeal: It's no secret Vince seems to think tall, very muscular men make the ideal wrestler, so it's no surprise those types are often the champion. Just ask HulkHogan, UltimateWarrior, {{Batista}}, BrockLesnar, and TripleH, to name a few.
* AuthorAvatar: The [=McMahon=] family (and to an extent, TripleH, who married into the family)
* BadBoss: VinceMcMahon. In fact it's the entire premise for his onscreen persona.
** Eric Bischoff, as ''RAW'' general manager, certainly fit this trope, as did PaulHeyman as both ''[=SmackDown=]'' general manager and ECW chairman. Longtime ''[=SmackDown=]'' general manager Teddy Long, however, is an inversion: He tolerates no disrespect or LoopholeAbuse by the heels. The [[TheVoice anonymous]] ''RAW'' general manager was a bit of a mixed bag, as was TripleH. The current ''RAW'' general manager, John Laurinaitis, also fits the trope.
* {{Badass}}: WWE's resident go-to {{Badass}} is Mark Callaway, better known as TheUndertaker (see his CrowningMomentOfAwesome entry). Come Hellfire or VinceMcMahon, this man lives for the fans, and he's respected for it.
* BadassBeard:
** TripleH, ShawnMichaels (Of the PermaStubble variety), TheUndertaker, RandySavage, [[AndZoidberg and]] Hillbilly Jim!
** {{Edge}}. Whenever he returns from injury, he does it sporting a full beard.
* BadassFamily: The Guerreros, the [=McMahons=], The Samoans, the Harts/Neidharts.
* BadassGrandpa: RicFlair, Undertaker, Batista (in RealLife, no less), occasionally Mr. [=McMahon=].
* BadassLongcoat: Undertaker, Edge
* BadassLonghair: It seems that every wrestler from the eighties and nineties had this, especially amongst the Kliq: TripleH, ShawnMichaels, BretHart, TheUndertaker, HulkHogan, KevinNash, ScottHall, and though the look might have seemed to be a passing vogue, most stuck with it. There are a number of newer wrestlers that have it too, like JohnMorrison.
* BaldOfAwesome: StoneColdSteveAustin, {{Goldberg}}.
* BadMoodAsAnExcuse: Used in excess by heel characters. Face characters aren't immune to this either. In general, it's dangerous to your well being to be around a wrestler when they're frustrated.
* BeardOfEvil: Played straight with the early '00s Triple H.
** Subverted with Justin Gabriel, post-Corre breakup in 2011; also subverted by Daniel Bryan.
* BigBad: VinceMcMahon, nearly constantly. In the year 2006, he took this UpToEleven by paying off a bewilderingly diverse CarnivalOfKillers (Shelton Benjamin, the Spirit Squad, Chris Masters, and Umaga just to name a ''few'') to either convert to [[ParodyReligion McMahonism]], rid WWE of DGenerationX, or both. In fact, practically every heel on RAW (and even some from Smack Down! and ECW) were either on the take or pressed into working for Mr. [=McMahon=].
* BilingualBonus: Sometimes people such as ReyMysterioJr or Maryse will cut part of a promo in their native language, or sometimes the whole thing.
** Inadvertently inverted by Maryse on the 09.27.2010 edition of RAW: she and Ted DiBiase Jr. received a piece of paper with "next week, you will be mine" written on it. Maryse read it in french first, saying: "la semaine dernière, tu étais à moi", which translates as "last week, you were mine", [[CaptainObvious which is not what was written]], and probably made many French-speaking fans weep.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Admittedly, pretty much every character in WWE has been a heel at some point during his or her career. Rey Mysterio is the only prominent figure who even comes close to being a true MarySue character.
* BoringInvincibleHero: HulkHogan for most of his career, TripleH and JohnCena at times.
** The UltimateWarrior was arguably the worst offender. How many times did you EVER see the UltimateWarrior put someone over clean?
*** Answer for most fans: zero times.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: It's extremely rare that they actually do this, rather than just LeaningOnTheFourthWall, but it finally happened (pretty much) in NXT season 3. During Goldust and Aksana's wedding, MichaelCole wondered aloud why Goldust was getting along with his brother after seemingly hating him previously, and Josh Matthews responded with "You know this is fake, right?" After a few seconds of mock-disbelief, they went right back into taking the ceremony pseudo-seriously. NXT in general has increasingly begun to break or lean on the fourth wall, whether it's through commentary or someone like DolphZiggler mockingly accusing a challenge of being rigged and Matt Striker simply answering with "Ya think?" The pros at their seats are also generally not in character and so it's not uncommon to see the various heels and faces chatting or otherwise doing something unrelated to the show.
** Before that at the first One Night Stand pay-per-view Paul Heyman gave a speech that started as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming as he thanked the loyal ECW fans then turned into a fourth wall destroying TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and general TakeThat to the WWE members that had "invaded" the show.
** During his shoot promo, CM Punk briefly made reference to the fourth wall, even going so far as to waving directly to the camera. Since then, his character has given him the freedom to escape the confines of the show's premise anytime he wants.
--> '''CM Punk:''' Woops, I'm breakin' the fourth wall!
* BreakTheCutie: Done very, very cruelly with Mickie James. There's a reason that more than one wrestling publication called that angle pretty much a humiliation for the industry.
* BrickJoke: During the 900th episode of Raw, Edge referred to {{Sheamus}} as Beaker. On the Halloween 2011 episode of Raw, Sheamus came face to face with Beaker. [[spoiler: Turns out they're cousins.]]
* TheBumblebee: Rey Mysterio and JohnCena, JeffHardy to a lesser extent.
* ButtMonkey: Santino Marella.
** Chavo Guerrero. Because there's nothing more humiliating than jobbing to Hornswoggle over and over and over again. [[spoiler: Or doing it while wearing an eagle costume.]]
*** When his uncle EddieGuerrero (who was like an older brother to him) died, and the company engaged in about a year of what fans derisively refer to as "Eddiesploitation", it was Rey Mysterio who got the big push as Eddie's successor. Despite the fact that Mysterio and Eddie had little connection beyond both being Hispanic and having feuded several times in the past.
**** It's been said that Chavo was offered the big push before Rey, but turned it down.
** Two words: [[MichaelCole Michael. Cole.]]
* CardCarryingVillain: Kaientai from the "Attitude Era". They were [[LargeHam EEEEEVVVIIILLLL!!!! INDEED!!!]]
** "Million Dollar Man" TedDiBiase made many ''{{Batman}}'' villains look subdued, for crying out loud. ("Everyone's got a price! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!")
* CatchPhrase: And how! Check out the [[{{Characters/WWE}} Character Page]] for examples.
* ChannelHop: ''Raw'' went from the USA Network to TNN/Spike TV (2000-2005), and back to USA.
** [=SmackDown!=] went from UPN to TheCW, then to MyNetworkTV, then to {{Syfy}}.
** ''Saturday Night's Main Event'' went from {{NBC}} to {{Fox}}, and was revived on NBC.
* CharacterDevelopment
* ChewToy: The SpanishAnnouncersTable, which seems to exist solely so wrestlers can take bumps through it.
* CoolMask: Kane (until he was unmasked), ReyMysterioJr., Mankind.
* CoolShades: Edge, JohnMorrison, BretHart.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Too many to count, but most obvious was [[CutLexLuthorACheck Vince]] and ShaneMcMahon.
* CurbStompBattle: Happens from time-to-time. Usually, between an incoming BigBad and a {{Jobber}}.
** Occasionally subverted too. Drew [=McIntyre=] made his debut like a standard jobber (starting in the ring with no entrance)... only to end up squashing the superstar he was facing and declaring himself the Chosen One.
** This was taken BeyondTheImpossible in the Rey Mysterio vs JBL match at Wrestlemania 25. Rey Rey won the match in a matter of seconds.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The Attitude Era, the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s where the product was loaded with ultra-violence and sex appeal.
* DarkIsNotEvil: TheUndertaker, if he's a face.
** 'Taker is currently rivaled in this department by RandyOrton. Despite being known as "The Viper" and hardly ''ever'' smiling, he gets enormous cheers from the fans. It must have been a DracoInLeatherPants transition.
*** A popular theory about Orton's popularity is that he reminds fans of StoneColdSteveAustin. He dresses in similar clothing (black boots and trunks), has a snake-like nickname (The Viper compared to Austin's Texas Rattlesnake), works a slow, deliberate "no-frills" style similar to Austin's and his finisher, the RKO bears a passing similarity to Austin's Stone Cold Stunner. Orton, coincidentally (or perhaps deliberately) has since shaved his head and begun using the Lou Thesz Press.
** StoneColdSteveAustin fits as well. He's a Type V Antihero (hero in name only) who dresses in dark colors, drinks beer, attacks people unprovoked (sometimes even Divas, civilians and the elderly) and is generally loathsome... He then turned that dial up to 11 and exacerbated this behavior as part of a FaceHeelTurn; despite the announcers screaming how reprehensible these actions were, and the other wrestlers condemning him, fans continued to cheer him simply because he was StoneColdSteveAustin. As a result, his turn never quite took and he was turned back relatively quickly.
* DayInTheLimelight: Everyone - and I mean ''everyone'' - gets one in WWE. Don't believe me? Just ask [[EnsembleDarkhorse Hornswoggle]].
* DeepSouth: Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch, Jesse and Festus, Jamie Noble.
** Also, [[JeffHardy Jeff]] and MattHardy to a certain extent.
** Florida-born Michelle [=McCool=] is sort of a [[AlphaBitch bitchy Southern belle]] as a heel.
* DesignatedVillain: [[invoked]] Some of the heels who get the most negative reactions from audiences are really more annoying or misguided than truly evil. Jillian Hall (whose only real crime is having an atrocious singing voice and not realizing it) is a perfect example. If such a heel is booked to be part of an important or semi-important storyline, the writers will usually have him or her quickly [[KickTheDog kick dogs]].
* DiscontinuityNod: In a 2007 promo on Raw, ShawnMichaels and TripleH took shots at the infamous Katie Vick angle.
-->'''ShawnMichaels:''' I don't know [[WhoWritesThisCrap who writes this garbage]], but this is the worst debacle since that whole Katie Vick thing years ago!
** CMPunk also took shots at Katie Vick in an episode of Raw.
--->'''CMPunk:''' Just look it up on Youtube, and it'll drive you to drink, and then you can come to me and I'll save you!
** Amidst the bizarrely entertaining hodgepodge of half-intentional comedy that is NXT season 3, there have been at least a few of these; for example, during the Goldust/Aksana wedding, MichaelCole said of the minister "Is that Al Wilson?" (See OutWithABang below.)
* DisproportionateRetribution: Very popular with heels, and often a starting point for a feud. Faces aren't exactly innocent of using this either.
* TheDragon: Shane O'Mac to his father Vince when both are heels. Alternatively ([[CoDragons or perhaps at the same time]]), Vince will use a top heel wrestler as this. The best example is [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] when he was the "Corporate Champion".
* DragonAscendant: [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] in the Nation of Domination and TripleH in DGenerationX.
* DumbMuscle: Often played straight, with a cocky heel accompanied by large, [[TheVoiceless silent]], not-especially-bright {{Mook}}s – but sometimes subverted: some very muscular wrestlers like Batista, Bobby Lashley or TripleH, although not being geniuses, aren't stupid either.
** One of TripleH's {{Red Baron}}s is even "The Cerebral Assassin".
* EnemyMine: Virtually a given in any Triple Threat Match. Is especially funny in the Royal Rumble Match, particularly in 2005 when Muhammad Hassan tried to participate. He didn't last too long.
** The build up to Team WWE vs. TheNexus at ''Summerslam 2010'' involved JohnCena and BretHart forging a fragile alliance with {{Edge}} and ChrisJericho. In a matter of weeks, Edge and Jericho would join the team, quit the team, and rejoin six days before the match. The only thing that kept the team together was mutual hate for Nexus, and it only lasted until Edge and Jericho's eliminations from the team.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: KellyKelly. There was more than a little LesYay evident when Candice Michelle enthusiastically accepted Kelly's invitation to join her in an ECW dance performance. Before that, TrishStratus.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: JohnMorrison and ShawnMichaels, notably.
* EvilForeigner: Played straight with Kamala, Vladimir Kozlov, William Regal, the Great Khali, practically every Canadian heel ever, and Finlay when he was heel. Averted by the likes of Kofi Kingston, Yoshi Tatsu and Finlay as a face, but played so straight with practically everyone of foreign extraction ever seen in WWF/E at some point in their careers, it's become one of Vinnie Mac's defining tropes - not that it's ever been confined to WWE, of course. Even applied to wrestlers who are not actually foreign or even of the same racial background as the character portrayed, providing they don't need to speak a lot - e.g. Jimmy Yang, a Korean-American, played Tajiri's {{Mook}} 'Akio' in a ''Japanese'' stable (some time before he subverted this trope by becoming 'Jimmy Wang Yang', a 'foreign'-looking chap who happens to act like he's a cowboy, which is therefore amusing), or Yokozuna, a quasi-'Japanese' Polynesian wrestler played by Rodney Anoai of the great Samoan wrestling dynasty. Many of this family have been presented as semi-savages when their ethnic background is recognized, from the Wild Samoans to Umaga. The Canadian BretHart got massive heel heat in America by proclaiming his home country's superiority, yet simultaneously retained a fanatically loyal Canadian fanbase that kept the Hitman face north of the border – which presumably made his opponents Evil Foreigners from a Canadian perspective. Years later, the various incarnations of La Resistance were always Evil Foreigners (whether billed as from France or Quebec, except for one delirious babyface night in Montreal), which led to the absurd commentary habit of referring to them as first "French sympathizers" and subsequently "Quebec sympathizers" – prompting some mystification amongst those who had missed the exact point at which the USA or indeed WWE had declared war on France and Quebec...
** The WWE had always been rather supportive of the armed forces (witness Tribute to the Troops). That might explain it.
** Subverted when WWE did the stupid "Kerwin White" gimmick with Chavo Guerrero, showing him pretending to want to be a stereotypical preppy white dude. Probably the one good thing about his Uncle Eddie's death is that this gimmick died with him. (It should be noted that both Eddie and Chavo were/are American.)
** As of 2010, WWE has toned down their usage of this trope - WWE now has a plethora of foreigners (such as [[WickedCultured Alberto]] [[AlbertoDelRio Del Rio]], [[GeniusBruiser Wade Barrett]], [[MilesGloriosus Sheamus]], [[ViolentGlaswegian Drew McIntyre]], [[TheNexus Justin Gabriel]]), and while many of them are heels, none of them are evil because they are foreign - each has a full-on heel gimmick to get heat.
** And as of 2012, an equal number of foreigners who are face. As with the heels, they're the good guys with their own characters rather than using their foreigner status as their sole defining feature.
* EvilIsPetty: Often used to gain heel heat, especially if said heel isn't getting the right kind of audience reaction. KurtAngle once tried every offense tactic in the book in one promo "and these people still cheer for him"!
* EvilLaugh: TedDiBiase Sr., full stop.
* {{Expy}}: Some of the next generation of wrestlers like RandyOrton and JohnMorrison seem a bit like they're a call back to previous superstars. Randy as mentioned above has crossed into Steve Austin territory while JohnMorrison wouldn't seem too far out of place alongside ShawnMichaels.
** Ted [=DiBiase=] Jr. basically ''is'' one to [[TedDiBiase his father.]] YourMileageMayVary on how well it works.
* FaceHeelTurn: A standard procedure. Often used to start a new storyline or to advance an old one.
* FascinatingEyebrow: [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]]'s The People's / Corporate Eyebrow
* FatBastard: King Kong Bundy, Earthquake, Yokozuna, Bastion Booger, Rikishi, Big Daddy V to name a few.
** Subverted by Haystacks Calhoun, who was grotesquely fat but [[BigFun hailed as a hero by the fans]]. Also subverted during Rikishi's face periods.
* FiveMovesOfDoom: TropeNamer is BretHart, though the TropeCodifier is JohnCena and an Ur-Example is HulkHogan.
* FridayNightDeathSlot: Averted, when {{UPN}} moved [=SmackDown!=] to Friday nights, and again, when it [[ChannelHop switched to]] MyNetworkTV, the WWE aggressively promoted the show, and it more or less retained their audience.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: Gangrel. (He never really got the stardom to be a face or a heel.) Kevin Thorn would later adopt the vampire gimmick.
* FunWithAcronyms: Let's see: '''I'''rwin '''R'''. '''S'''hyster, the wrestling taxman...'''H'''enry '''O'''. '''G'''odwin and '''P'''hineas '''I'''. '''G'''odwin, wrestling swine-farmers, '''M'''ontel '''V'''ontavious '''P'''orter, the CaptainErsatz for Terrell Owens, Rosey the '''S'''uper '''H'''ero '''I'''n '''T'''raining.
* GeodesicCast: The Brand Extension to [[WWERaw Raw]] and [[WWESmackdown Smackdown]] (and briefly {{ECW}}).
* TheGiant: AndreTheGiant, [[KevinNash Kevin "Diesel" Nash]], TheBigShow and The Great Khali, and to a lesser extent, {{Wrestler/Kane}}, and TheUndertaker.
* GimmickMatches
* {{Hammerspace}}: Under the ring is pretty much this. In addition to the fact that pretty much anything can be found underneath it, Hornswoggle ''lives'' under it in {{kayfabe}}. And DX once had to go under it as part of a storyline where Hornswoggle sued them, discovering an ''entire building'' under the ring populated by people of Hornswoggles size. This was previously mentioned by JBL, but no one believed him...
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor
** Rosa Mendes seems more fit to be heel than face, but she can't even keep to any alignment beyond a few weeks anymore.
* HeelFaceTurn: This is pretty common among the main-eventers, as fans start to want to cheer for a fascinating heel but don't want to feel "dirty" doing it.
* HijackedByGanon: [[spoiler:VinceMcMahon]] as the Higher Power in 1999. TripleH hijacking Test's kayfabe wedding to StephanieMcMahon (and push) in the same year.
** StoneColdSteveAustin getting run over by a car driven by Rikishi: TripleH was revealed as the mastermind out of nowhere a few months into the feud.
* Hoyay: A [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/WWE whole page worth barely scatches the surface]]
* IAteWhat: Al Snow's "Pepper steak".
* IdiotBall: The most frequently-occurring case is when a wrestler completely switches focus from the opponent they have lying on the mat to yell at someone (either the ref, or whomever came to the aid of their opponent) in the opposite direction or outside the ring. 9 times out of 10, this results in them turning and walking straight into the opponent's finisher; the remaining 1 is a successful roll-up.
* InformedAbility: NXT rookie Michael Tarver hasn't knocked anyone out in '1.9 seconds' on screen yet.
** Now subverted with the NXT riot. His first victim? ''JohnCena.''
* InsistentTerminology: Professional wrestling soon gave way to "Sports Entertainment" and, as of 2010, "''Live'' Entertainment."
** As [[WorkedShoot mentioned]] by JoeyStyles, WWE's insistence upon calling the wrestlers "Superstars" (Which, to be fair, they have done since the 80s.)
** Taken to the next level when TVWeek wrote a press release about Drew Carey being inducted into the "Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame" and the {{WWE}} '''demanded''' the headline be changed because it included the words "Pro Wrestling". Read more about it [[http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/2011/03/whoaa-nellie-when-brands-go-horribly-wrong-pstvince-mcmahon-and-the-wwe-are-no-longer-in-the-wrestli.php here]].
*** Although to be fair, the WWE Hall of Fame does not represent the industry as whole so there were likely more reasons beyond simply the terminology.
* {{Jobber}}: In the 1990s, it was Barry Horowitz. Also, Al Snow and the "J.O.B. Squad". Steve Lombardi, the Brooklyn Brawler, was the traditional "virgin-slayer" in the 80s and 90s, just about everyone who wasn't jobbing got their first win over him. In 2008 Colin Delaney lost so often, losing actually became his gimmick.
* KidsPreferBoxes: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AxogCo4dV4 This Christmas promo]] for [=WWEshop=].com and the Elimination Chamber playset. CMOF for Shawn Michaels.
* LameComeback: Very often, a face and a heel will converse and the face will mock and insult the heel. And virtually every single time, the heel will either respond with spluttering outrage or by saying some variation of "You think you're pretty funny, huh?"
* LaxativePrank: EddieGuerrero did this to The Big Show using a bagful of spiked burritos.
* LeParkour: JohnMorrison practices this both in-ring and outside.
* LighterAndSofter: Since WWE's free shows became rated TV-PG, starting in 2009. The pay-per-views were rated TV-14, until the ''Hell in a Cell'' PPV, which was rated TV-PG.
** The addition of little-person wrestler Hornswoggle and his inclusion in many storylines seemed to come at the very beginning of this new phase of the WWE's existence. Needless to say many fans [[RuinedForever don't seem to like]] the overly cartoony matches he's involved in very much.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Many, many instances. TripleH, especially, ''loves'' this one.
** During most of the backstage segments that aren't direct promos or interviews, most superstars don't acknowledge that there is a camera crew right there in the room with them. They'll sometimes openly discuss secret plans as if they were the only ones in the room and the people who's backs they're sneaking behind couldn't just watch the show later on DVR. Kane is a notable exception; towards the end of most backstage skits he's in, he'll give an evil stare directly into the camera.
** NXT season 3. The show was due to be "cancelled" mid-season in order to bring Smackdown to the SyFy network, and WWE apparently took this as an opportunity to launch into full-blown self-referential insanity, especially at the commentary table. MichaelCole constantly derided the show as being terrible and "quit" at one point. He was briefly replaced by CMPunk, which resulted in an episode where the commentary (aside from seeing a substantial increase in quality) reached a nearly MST3K level of mocking, and it stayed right around that level ever since. In addition to just trashing the show in general, the commentary frequently danced around kayfabe.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: MickFoley's four wrestling personas - Cactus Jack, Dude Love, Mankind and [[AsHimself himself]] - are all completely separate characters.
** Note: Unlike [[PunnyName Isaac Yankem DDS]] and Kane, say, who were played by the same person but are totally separated characters, it is openly acknowledged that Foley is one guy in 4 roles. It was even {{lampshaded}} when he once entered a Royal Rumble match three times (he wasn't working under his own name at the time), once for each persona.
* LoserLeavesTown: The Career Threatening Match forces a wrestler to leave the company if he loses said match. Comes in numerous variants, including the ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin 'Loser Gets Fired' match.
* LoudGulp: VinceMcMahon has turned this into an art.
* MacGuffinMelee: For a while the Hardcore Title was defended on the "24/7 rule." Anybody could challenge for the belt at any time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no matter what the champ was doing, as long as they had a WWF ref to call the match. Frequently the new champ would then be attacked by one of his friends, who would win the belt only to be challenged in turn, and so on.
** The 24/7 thing came to an end when Crash Holly was at a bar and a random wrestling fan tried to pin him and win the Hardcore Title. WWE quickly dropped the idea after that incident.
* ManipulativeBastard: Edge and TripleH, and sometimes Mr. [=McMahon=].
* MeleeATrois: Triple Threat Matches and Fatal ''x''-Ways, usually. Upped to "always" when a title's on the line.
* MisplacedAccent: Kofi Kingston is from Ghana (West Africa) but was initially billed as 'Jamaican' and used an accent approximately more like he's from Jamaica.
* {{Mook}}: If VinceMcMahon is a [[BigBad heel]], pretty much every heel can be considered this, since he can summon them whenever he wants. To a lesser extent, a lower-level heel authority figure or even main heel wrestlers can use lower card heels this way, especially if they have a PowerStable that's larger than a FiveBadBand.
* NamedByDemocracy:The fans were asked to name every program on the WWE Network. Also how Air Boom got their name.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: Yes, we DO know that it's fake, thank you. You can stop informing us.
** One fan at Wrestlemania XXVI held a sign that stated, "It's still real to me, dammit!"
** Yes, we heard that TripleH monopolizes creative control. So did HulkHogan, RicFlair, KurtAngle . . . ShawnMichaels, Dusty Rhodes, [[{{TNA}} Jeff Jarrett]], uh everybody who's ever had creative control has done that.
* NeverMyFault: Commonplace. A heel can ''never'' accept they lost a match legitimately, they will accuse their opponent of using illegitimate tactics or manipulating a weakness. Can often lead into another feud arc if they blame their loss on an ally involved (and usually try beat that point into them).
* NinetiesAntiHero: StoneColdSteveAustin pretty much codified the trope for ProfessionalWrestling, let alone WWE. He was followed by [[FanNickname Bikertaker]], The Rock (as a face) and TripleH's non-DX face character.
* [[NotUsingTheZWord Not Using the W Word]]: WWE is notorious for frequent attempts to distance itself from the concept of ''wrestling''; instances include (but are not limited to) billing itself as "Sports Entertainment" rather than 'professional wrestling', press releases to magazines playing the trope straight, exclusively referring to wrestlers as "Superstars" rather than 'wrestlers', referring to Fans as "the WWE Universe"; and, most lately, discarding its own ''name'' (World Wrestling Entertainment) – 'WWE' is now officially not an acronym, the company is purely named as WWE.
** Zigzagged now; the word "wrestler" is part of WWE Champ CMPunk's InsistentTerminology, and WWE has relented somewhat on the policy, reportedly due to falling ratings.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: {{Sheamus}}' justification for helping JohnCena in an episode of Raw.
* OutWithABang: Al Wilson, in what's probably an angle most people have repressed.
* OverlyLongGag: Admit it - the fans shouting out "WHAT!?" grates on the nerves, seeing as Stone Cold (who started it up) has long been largely out of the picture, and it was only 'relevant' during his brief heel run a ''decade'' ago.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: ReyMysterioJr may be short, but he's also noticeably quicker than the vast majority of the guys he wrestles against. He's held his own against more than his share of big guys.
* PlayingWithFire: Kane; the Inferno Match; occasionally the wrestlers' pyros.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Inverted by Muhammad Hassan. Thuggin' and Buggin' Enterprises was a straight example. Kerwin White was the most extreme.
* PokeThePoodle: One storyline had Tyson Kidd feuding with Yoshi Tatsu. Tyson's claim to villain/big heel act to get Yoshi angry? He broke Yoshi's action figure.
* PowerStable: Some examples:
** The Heenan Family (80s-'92)
** The New Hart Foundation (1997)
** DGenerationX (1997-2000)
** MinistryOfDarkness (1998-1999)
** TheCorporation (1998-1999)
** Evolution (2003-2005)
** The Cabinet (2004-2005)
** La Familia (2007-2008)
** Legacy (2008-2010)
** TheNexus (2010-2011)
** [[TheNexus The Corre]] (2011)
* ReligionOfEvil: Undertaker and the entire MinistryOfDarkness during the AttitudeEra. Also an inadvertent CosmopolitanCouncil.
** VinceMcMahon would briefly create [=McMahonism=], mostly as retaliation for ShawnMichaels' newfound born-again status.
** The cult of "straight edge" is appearing to look this way thanks to CMPunk and his "Straight Edge Society."
* RingOldies: Finlay is 49 years old. Undertaker and ShawnMichaels are 45 years old. TripleH is 41 years old. HulkHogan is 58. However, special mention goes to RicFlair who (after "retiring" at 59) wrestles past the age of 61.
** None of them can hold a candle to The Fabulous Moolah, who won a match on her 80th birthday.
** Or Mae Young who took a table bump (to clarify for non-fans, that means getting smashed through a table) from the Dudleys in her 80s... and who claims to have a standing invitation to wrestle VinceMcMahon's (currently preschooler) granddaughter, Aurora Levesque, on Mae's 100th birthday.
*** Mae Young will turn 100 in the year 2023, at which point young Aurora will be sixteen plus change. So... plausible?
* StillTheLeader: Faarooq, after The Rock took over leadership of the Nation.
* SuplexFinisher: Somewhat surprisingly, very few wrestlers use a suplex as an actual finishing move. The most notable examples are probably [[CurtHennig Mr. Perfect]]'s Perfectplex and the T-Bone Suplex of Shelton Benjamin. There's also, to some extent, Goldust's Final Cut, {{Goldberg}}'s Jackhammer and Al Snow's Snowplow brainbuster. Notable examples where a variety is used as the direct set-up for a finisher include EddieGuerrero's Three Amigos twisting snap suplexes (for the Frog Splash), and the trifecta of German suplexes often used by ChrisBenoit (for the Diving Headbutt) and KurtAngle.
* TakeThat: During the Monday Night Wars, and against those who left the WWE on bad terms.
** The MoralGuardians, the Right To Censor, is a TakeThat towards the Parents' Television Council.
* TearsOfJoy: Whenever someone wins their first championship.
* ThirdPersonPerson: The Rock says that The Rock hasn't been mentioned yet!
* TookALevelInBadass: Quite a few examples...
** JeffHardy, full stop. When he and his brother Matt debuted in the company in the late 1990s, they [[{{Jobber}} lost every single one of their matches for a while]]. Ten years later, Jeff [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome won the WWE Championship]].
** TheMiz transformed over time from a clownish DirtyCoward to a legitimately threatening heel. When he became ''WWE Champion'' in November 2010, it's a bit surprising that [[PuffOfLogic the entire universe didn't explode as a result]].
** Many of the Divas make this list:
*** Stacy Keibler - After more than three years of mostly being used as eye candy, Stacy finally got a push of sorts in October of 2004 when she pinned Molly Holly to become Number One Contender to TrishStratus's Women's Championship. Although she didn't win her one-on-one with Stratus, Keibler got a second opportunity soon afterward when she entered a seven-woman Battle Royal at ''Taboo Tuesday'' and made it two-thirds of the way through before getting eliminated by Holly.
*** Candice Michelle - She will go down in history as the first Diva Search contestant (2004) to win the Women's Championship. She accomplished this in June 2007, when she pinned then-champion Melina Perez at the first-ever ''Night Of Champions''. She held the title for nearly four months, finally losing it to BethPhoenix.
*** Maria Kanellis - Another 2004 Diva Search contestant, she started out as a "dim-witted" backstage interviewer for comic relief on ''Monday Night Raw''. She made occasional forays into the ring over the next few years, finally becoming more or less a full-time wrestler in 2008. That's when she became the first Diva to pin BethPhoenix since Phoenix had won the Women's Championship (though the match was non-title, and Kanellis needed some help from Candice Michelle to score the win). Kanellis and Phoenix met again at ''[=WrestleMania=] XXIV'' in a tag-team match that also included Ashley Massaro and Melina Perez, and Kanellis almost certainly would have pinned Phoenix clean if it hadn't been for interference by Santino Marella.
*** KellyKelly - She joined the relaunched ''ECW on [=SciFi=]'' in June of 2006 as an exotic dancer [[InsistentTerminology ("exhibitionist," to use her term)]] with practically no wrestling skills. After just over a year of training, she began to appear in the ring sporadically and then full-time after being drafted to ''Monday Night Raw'' in 2008. She appeared in back-to-back (2008 and 2009) Divas' Elimination Matches at ''Survivor Series'', eliminating two Divas between them. Finally, she won the Divas' Championship from Brie Bella on June 20, 2011, after being voted Number One Contender by the fans.
*** TrishStratus - Yes, believe it or not, she belongs on this list too. ''Seven time'' Women's Champion, who started out as a valet for T&A and eye candy for VinceMcMahon, and who was initially so bad in the ring that she could ''botch a catfight''.
** JohnCena went from a comic-relief white-boy rapper to possibly the biggest face in the federation. Key moments in the transition included marking his return from injury by [[GiantKilling lifting Rikishi above his head]], and slapping Vince in the face.
* TooManyHalves: Montel Vontavius Porter: "I am half-man, half-amazing, half-tag-team-champion... I'm so great, I'm the only man on Earth with three halves!"
* TooSoon: The Muhammad Hassan angle on [=SmackDown=], Who Killed Mr. [=McMahon=]?
** Although the latter is more of a "too early", [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Benoit_double_murder_and_suicide considering the circumstances]].
*** Both were. The Hassan angle was filmed before the July 7th bombings, it was only aired after them.
* [[TrashTheSet Trash The [=TitanTron=]]]: Happens each time when the WWE upgrades its [=TitanTron=]. For example, on an episode of Raw in 2007, TripleH throws his sledgehammer at the [=TitanTron=] to make way for the current [=TitanTron=] HD set used on Raw, [=SmackDown=], ECW, and Superstars.
** The NXT rookies took this one pretty literally on the 6/7/10 Raw, when they took out ''everyone'' at ringside (down to the bell-ringer and medical personnel) and gave a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown to JohnCena.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Vickie Guerrero.
** Really, most times Vince asserts his authority.
* UnrelatedBrothers: Long-time childhood friends {{Edge}} and {{Christian}}. Whose being kayfabe brothers in the past is no longer acknowledged.
** Kane and Undertaker.
* {{Unperson}}: ChrisBenoit, though he is still mentioned in WWE's official title histories, match results, etc., as well as 2009's WWE Encyclopedia.
** The encyclopedia doesn't even mention that he's dead!
* [[Franks2000InchTV Vince's 2000-inch Titantron]]
* WhamEpisode: 4/11/11. Edge retiring.
* WildSamoan: The Wild Samoans, Umaga, Haku, Jimmy Snuka, and Rikishi Fatu. Averted by Yokozuna (who was Samoan but played a Japanese-style sumo wrestler), Manu, Rosey, the Uso brothers and Tamina. Oh, and [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]].
* WorldsStrongestMan: Nickname used by several wrestlers including MarkHenry, Ted Arcidi, Ken Patera, and Dino Bravo.
* WrestlingDoesntPay: Especially {{egregious}} in the late '80s and early '90s. Still applies to an extent nowadays depending on promotion and position; so much so that there was an article discussing how embarassing that TNA's woman's champion... was making so little, she had to work in a Sunglasses Hut (a mall kiosk).
* YesMan: The general attitude of VinceMcMahon to some people is that he refuses to take "no" for an answer. Pretty much a job description for anybody on the writing team not related to the [=McMahons=], according to virtually everyone.
* YouLookFamiliar: Occasionally a wrestler will disappear and return with a new name and gimmick so radically different, many fans won't recognize him. Jamal to Umaga for example.
** Sometimes the WWE marketing actually helps this along, pretending that an earlier character played by a current athlete-actor never existed. R-Truth (a.k.a. RonKillings) is actually K-Kwik from back in the day; he even won a title as K-Kwik, but WWE has apparently HandWaved that out of existence.
*** Similarly, when DolphZiggler won the WWE Intercontinental Championship in 2010, the announcers claimed that it was his first title, conveniently forgetting that the same wrestler was part of the Spirit Squad which won the World Tag Team Championship in 2006.
*** Festus is probably one of the best examples. He's now one of CMPunk's underlings.
*** Festus is actually a subversion: he's acknowledged to be the same person, but the story is that he's been "saved" by [[SmugStraightEdge CM]] [[MessianicArchetype Punk]] and his teachings.
*** He was also the fake Kane. So he's subverted it and played it straight.
*** Speaking of {{Wrestler/Kane}}, the real one previously played Fake Diesel when KevinNash left for WCW; earlier still, he was 'wrestling dentist' Isaac Yankem, before he was retooled (unacknowledged) under a mask into TheUndertaker's psychopathic half-brother.
*** Charles Wright, who played Papa Shango, Kama the Supreme Fighting Machine, and The Godfather. While Kama sort of evolved into The Godfather, they never once acknowledged that he was ever Papa Shango. It sort of helps that Shango wore face paint all the time, and that the time between Wright's stints as Shango and Kama was a fairly long interval.
*** Tyler Reks was a short lived surfer dude who then showed up as Tyler Reks, dreadlocked demolition man.
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